Call to bring Bothwell back to Scotland
The article below is from The Guardian.
This article titled “Call to bring Bothwell, the forgotten Braveheart, back to Scotland” was written by Tracy McVeigh, for The Observer on Sunday 26th December 2010 00.05 UTCElizabeth I was said to fear him as the one man whose allegiance she could never buy. At one point he was the only Scottish nobleman not on her payroll. And after his death, the mention of his name could still reduce her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, to tears.
Now a new book claims that history has much maligned James Hepburn, the 4th Earl of Bothwell (1534-1578). It argues that he was in fact another Braveheart who deserves a place alongside Celtic heroes such as Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. And, spurred on by the prospect of a full and glorious rehabilitation for the 16th-century Scot who died a horrible death in exile in Denmark, one of his descendants is campaigning to repatriate his body.
Bothwell, the third husband of Mary Stuart – the young Scots queen who lost her throne and later her head – was portrayed by his enemies as a control freak who killed Lord Darnley, Mary’s previous husband, and dominated the young queen, kidnapping her and forcing her into marriage.
In fact, says renowned French historian Catherine Hermary-Vieille, Bothwell is a misunderstood hero who adored Mary, pretended to abduct the already pregnant queen to save her reputation, was her only true love and was simply disliked by jealous courtiers who lied about him.
“Much of what we had been told about him was through the accounts of people who disliked him, who were unreliable witnesses at a time when everyone was plotting or in a counter-plot,” says Hermary-Vieille.
“These Scottish lords were tough; they had feuds they fought for generations after everyone else had long forgotten what they were about, so to find a man like this of such character, so loyal to the queen and to Scotland, he was the only one. He was the last great patriot of an independent Scotland. It’s a pity history and the Scots do not remember him as such.”
Hermary-Vieille’s book, Lord James, has become a bestseller in France and the English-language version has just been published. One man who hopes it will help to reclaim Bothwell’s reputation is his descendant Sir Alastair Buchan-Hepburn, who has mounted a campaign to have Bothwell’s remains returned.
“It is very much our hope that he will be returned to Scotland and given a place of burial here,” he says. “Bothwell’s battles are long over but we have not stopped fighting for him, for a recognition of the heroic part he played in Scottish history. He was no murderer; everyone wanted Darnley dead apart from his own father, and indeed there is some hard evidence that Darnley was plotting to kill Bothwell and Mary when he blew himself up. He was a true patriot at a time when loyalty and honour were hard to find.”
Bothwell died, his mind unhinged, in a Danish dungeon in 1578. For the 10 years after he fled Scotland when Mary traded his freedom for her own capture, he was chained to a pillar around which his feet had worn a groove in the stone floor. His queen spent 19 years in captivity before her execution at the age of 44 on the orders of Elizabeth I.
Buchan-Hepburn hopes to persuade the Scottish first minister to approach the Danish royal family: “The Danes see it not as a family matter but as a head-of-state-to-another-head-of-state matter, so we really need the Scottish government to intercede. I do think we have a duty to repatriate and remember this man, who was so important to how British history unravelled itself.”
Hermary-Vieille agrees: “I don’t see any reason why the Danes want to keep this man in some little church at the end of nowhere. He was the king and he belongs to Scotland. I went to visit the church in Denmark and the coffin is behind big, big iron chains and a lock. It is sad he is still locked up. He needs to be free now. And come home.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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Spain’s Felipe and Letizia assist young people
Spain’s Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia attended a Fundacíon Príncipe de Girona (Prince of Girona Foundation) presentation at the Royal Palace of El Pardo in Madrid on December 13. The foundation provides support and training to young people and assists in the resolution of social problems. Prince Felipe, the Prince of Asturias and of Girona, has been the Honorary President of the Foundation since its creation in 2009.
Royal car attack: Cameron calls for ‘full force of law’
David Cameron today promised the full force of the law would be used on the “mob” who attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, and smashed property in central London last night, while student leaders hit back, claiming protesters had suffered police brutality.
Mark Bergfeld, of the Education Activist Network, claimed demonstrators had suffered “horrendous” conditions as they were kettled for up to 10 hours and said the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were just in “the wrong place at the wrong time”.
“There was police brutality,” he said. “I saw 14-year-olds carry out their friends with cracked heads and things like that.
“I saw that people were being kettled until 1am on Westminster bridge. They were held there without toilet facilities, without water or food for 10 hours. We don’t live in that kind of regime.”
Cameron and the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, said more than a small number of people were involved in violence during and after a Commons vote paving the way for a trebling of university tuition fees.
The prime minister admitted concerns over royal security must be addressed, but said the responsibility for violence lay with the protesters.
“We want to learn the lessons from that but, above all, we want to make sure that the people who behaved in these appalling ways feel the full force of the law of the land.”
Attacks on the Treasury, supreme court and other buildings in central London left the Met facing questions about again losing control of the streets during a demonstration. It also faced questions about some officers being heavy handed, and the kettling of peaceful protesters. A total of 33 arrests were made.
A difficult 24 hours for the police continued this morning with the announcement of an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the case of a 20-year-old student who was apparently struck by a truncheon and left unconscious with bleeding on the brain.
Alfie Meadows, a philosophy student at Middlesex University, has undergone a three-hour operation. His mother said he was hit by police as he tried to leave the area outside Westminster Abbey and lost consciousness on the way to hospital.
Susan Meadows, 55, an English literature lecturer at Roehampton University, said: “He was hit on the head by a police truncheon … he’s got tubes coming out of him everywhere. He will be in hospital for quite a while, it was a very major thing.”
Speaking outside No 10, Cameron condemned the “completely unacceptable” behaviour of protesters. “It is no good saying this was a very small minority. It was not. There were quite a number of people who clearly were there wanting to pursue violence and to destroy property.
“I know that the Metropolitan police commissioner is going to be working hard to report on this. I also know, quite rightly, he will look into the regrettable incident where the Prince of Wales and his wife were nearly attacked by this mob. We want to learn the lessons from that.”
The attack on the royal car was not the fault of the police, he said. “This was the fault of people who tried to smash up that car.”
His remarks came after Stephenson said that armed officers protecting the royal couple showed enormous restraint and condemned the “thugs” involved in violence.
The commissioner said the attack on the royal car was a “hugely shocking incident and there will be a full criminal investigation” but added that “short of locking everything down” police had to try to find a balance between allowing protest and stopping violence.
He praised his officers and the royal protection officers for their actions in coping with a “very unpredictable demonstration … and very difficult night” and said they showed enormous restraint in the most difficult of circumstances.
“The route was thoroughly recced in advance, including up to several minutes beforehand when the route was still clear.
“The unpredictability of thugs and how they moved about the capital meant the protection officers were placed in a very difficult position.”
He said kettling and other police tactics did not contribute to the violence. “It is an excuse people are hiding behind … People need to be responsible for their own behaviour,” he said, adding that a significant number of protesters had behaved reprehensibly.
He denied the police operation had been “undercooked” and said it had involved nearly 3,000 officers.
Dozens of protesters and a number of officers were injured. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, blamed a “large number of agitators who were determined to cause the maximum possible trouble and provocation and they succeeded”.
He said a balance had to be struck between allowing protest and proportionate policing, saying the country could have a “different system”, using watercannon and harsher police tactics that would have left “more broken heads this morning”.
Charles and Camilla’s car was surrounded by a mob as it drove down Regent Street on the way to a Royal Variety performance, with protesters kicking at the doors and shattering a rear window.
The protesters had spilled into the West End after an initially peaceful demonstration outside parliament deteriorated and spread.
Witnesses described how about 400 to 500 protesters were on Regent Street when the royal car was attacked. Charles and Camilla were visibly shaken but unharmed after demonstrators set upon the vehicle with fists, boots and bottles, chanting “Off with their heads” and “Tory scum”.
Video footage posted on YouTube suggested the rear window was lowered as protestors surrounded the car but it was unclear whether Camilla, Charles or the driver was responsible.
Media reports that Camilla was prodded in the chest by a stick could not be confirmed. Today Charles and Camilla praised the efforts of police. A Clarence House spokesman said they understood the difficulties the police faced and were grateful for the job they did in “very challenging circumstances”.
In other developments today, Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist David, apologised for climbing the Cenotaph during the protests, saying he “would like to express his deepest apologies for the terrible insult to the thousands of people who died bravely for our country”.
The National Union of Students distanced itself from at least part of its London membership, pointing out that London University’s student union had organised the demonstration in Parliament Square while the NUS held a rally on Victoria Embankment. The NUS president, Aaron Porter, said violent action was deplorable but it would continue to organise peaceful protest.
Clare Solomon, president of London University’s student union, called the NUS leadership a disgrace. “They should have backed this demonstration. They are clearly out of touch,” she said.
The NUS had paid thousands of pounds for “a glow-stick vigil”, attracting 200 people, she said, when her union had spent hundreds on a protest that involved 35,000.
Solomon said it was hypocritical for people in the Tory party and others who voted for the war in Iraq to say that “this is violence when people are breaking windows as opposed to killing people”.
The police should also take some responsibility, she said. “They were the ones beating us up and putting us in hospital when we were attempting to peacefully protest.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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Prince Charles and Camilla caught up in London violence
A car containing Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, was attacked last night as a wave of protest swept through central London in the wake of a Commons vote to force through a trebling of university tuition fees for students in England.
Protesters cracked windows and threw paint on the Rolls-Royce after it became separated from its police escort and was surrounded by demonstrators who had spilled into the West End after an initially peaceful demonstration outside parliament rapidly deteriorated and spread.
One, Ben Kelsey, said: “There were 400 to 500 protesters there. It was fairly obvious who was in the car. It was very well lit up. Charles and Camilla looked quite relaxed at first but when they saw how many people there were they began to get worried. A few seconds later the area was packed with police. It was complete chaos.”
Another witness described how a police protection officer, dressed in a tuxedo, travelling in convoy with the royal couple opened the doors of his car to beat his way through the crowds.
The royal couple had looked visibly shaken when they arrived at the London Palladium for the Royal Variety performance, but Camilla later joked about the incident, saying: “First time for everything” as she left the theatre.
A Clarence House spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that their royal highnesses’ car was attacked by the protesters on the way to their engagement at the London Palladium this evening. Both their royal highnesses were unharmed.”
The attack is likely to heighten the pressure on the Met commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, whose tactics in the previous demonstrations have been heavily criticised. Stephenson admitted being caught by surprise by the scale of the first protest last month, when demonstrators raided Millbank Tower. At a later protest the police presence was much stronger, leading to complaints about heavyhanded kettling.
Stephenson last night said that it had been a “very long” and “very disappointing day for London”. He added: “We did everything we could to facilitate peaceful protest and, in reality, while I’m sure the vast majority came here to want to protest peacefully, a significant number of people behaved very badly today.” He said the force will launch a full investigation.
The prime minister, David Cameron, condemned the violence as “unacceptable”. “It is shocking and regrettable that the car carrying the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall was caught up and attacked in the violence.”
Home secretary Theresa May said: “I utterly condemn the increasing levels of violence and disorder that some of the protesters have been, and still are, involved in. What we are seeing in London tonight, the wanton vandalism, smashing of windows, has nothing to do with peaceful protest.”
The protests followed the vote over tuition fees in the Commons when 21 Liberal Democrat MPs voted against the plans and five abstained, refusing to follow their leader, Nick Clegg, and other Lib Dem ministers in favour of a new upper limit for fees of £9,000 from 2012, the culmination of an agonising few weeks for the junior party in the coalition.
As news of the vote came through, the demonstration became more heated with fires lit in Parliament Square, rocks thrown at the police, attempts to smash into the Treasury and the supreme court and a surge into the National Gallery’s impressionist rooms.
In freezing temperatures, an attempt to burn down the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square was thwarted, and some Christmas shoppers had to flee the trashing of shop windows on Oxford Street. The violence, at the end of the third in a series of demonstrations against the fee rise, was condemned by the National Union of Students.
The police again penned in demonstrators saying they were dealing with a crime scene. At least eight police officers were injured including one seriously.
The Commons vote came at the end of a serious five-hour debate in which the shadow business secretary, John Denham, warned: “If this Tory measure goes through with the support or abstention of Liberal Democrats, that party will forfeit the right to call itself a progressive political party.”
The Lib Dems signed an NUS pledge before the election vowing not to vote for an increase in tuition fees. But the business secretary, Vince Cable, said he was proud of the government’s package, and that his party would reunite.
In the wake of the vote, Clegg rushed out a message to party members urging them to reunite: “Of course I understand why many in our party wish we could have pursued a different policy. I wish that too, but we simply were not in that position, we did not win the general election but went into a coalition and had to tackle the greatest economic crisis in decades.”
“This is a package which is fairer than the existing situation, fairer than Lord Browne’s original review, fairer than the NUS proposals and fairer than the policies that both Labour and the Conservatives would have implemented had they been in government alone.”
Although the fees increase will now be voted on in the Lords on Tuesday, there is little or no expectation that the coalition will suffer a defeat, ensuring that the biggest change to university funding for a century will be introduced in 2012.
Cable admitted after the vote that the government hadd failed to get across its central message that the reforms would ensure greater fairness. “We have now to get the message out that we had to put universities on a sound financial footing and we are having to deal with this horrendous problem of the government deficit that we inherited.”
“We had to make painful choices affecting universities and other things. But we have done it in a way that makes the system fairer,” he said.
We have to explain that so that the next generation feel confident in applying for universities which will be in their long term interests. There is a big job to be done and I will very much be in the thick of that.”
Lib Dem cabinet ministers admitted that the party had been damaged over the past week amid confusion over how ministers would vote.
Two Liberal Democrat parliamentary private secretaries, Jenny Willott and Mike Crockart, and one Tory, Lee Scott, resigned in protest.For most of the day the protests in London, attended by several thousand – one protest group claimed as many as 30,000 –demonstrators, were tense but peaceful. Thousands were kettled within Parliament Square for several hours and unable to leave.
Hundreds of riot police stood shoulder to shoulder outside parliament and at the exits to the square, where a small number of protesters clashed with heavily armoured officers and police horses, leading to nine arrests.Police blamed “a continued unprovoked attack by protesters” for the violence and containment, but many demonstrators complained of excessive force, including baton charges on foot and horseback.
At least 38 protesters were injured, according to the Met. There were 26 arrests.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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